The invention relates to a microtome comprising a specimen holding means adapted to be reciprocally movable upwardly and downwardly in the plane of a stationary cutting knife, perpendicular to the cutting edge of the knife and mounted on a base plate so that it can be displaced in the direction of the cutting knife for adjustment of the thickness of specimen sections.
Such a microtome is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,151, inter alia. Such microtomes are used for removing thin, readily transilluminable layers, so-called sections, from biological and histological materials for light-microscopy examination thereof. To improve the quality of the cut in such microtomes, the specimen is typically embedded in paraffin or plastic.
Microtomes intended for the professional field are usually pieces of high-precision equipment which are too complex and expensive to be used for hobby, teaching and instructional purposes. On the other hand, the cutting of specimens with a razor blade does not often produce the desired cutting results and entails a great risk of injury.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to improve a microtome of the aforementioned type such that it can be used to produce sections of sufficiently uniform thickness for hobby and instructional purposes at an acceptable monetary expenditure and without putting the operator at risk of injury.